My Hero Academia

Overview

It’s Friday, but it’s not a Figure Friday because I have no more figures to show right now. Instead we have My Hero Academia.

My Hero Academia is the newest hit shōnen anime. It’s about a school that trains aspiring superheroes which makes me think of it as a cross between anime and Western comics in which superheroes are very popular. However, instead of calling their powers “super powers” they refer to them as “quirks.”

Originally I dropped My Hero Academia most of the way through the first season, but after the second season finished, I decided to give it another shot. I think the second season was definitely better than the first, but maybe that’s just because I felt there was a lot more action.

Part of this action was the obligatory shōnen fighting competition between all of the students. This may remind you of the second and third stages of the Chūnin Exam from Naruto or the World Tournament from Dragon Ball Z. Fighting competitions are often some of the most memorable portions of shōnen anime because there are many fights with little filler in between.

Characters

The main character is Izuku Midoriya (Deku), a quirkless boy who wants to be like his childhood hero, All Might. Although it’s a secret, All Might’s quirk is actually something very special. It’s the ability to pass his quirk on to someone else. So All Might decides to pass his quirk on to Midoriya because he showed that he had the heart of a hero.

Midoriya’s foil character is Katsuki Bakugō. Unlike Midoriya, he naturally had a quirk of his own which is the ability to make explosions come out of his hands. His personality is also the opposite of Midoriya’s as he wants to become the strongest superhero just to prove he’s better than everyone else; something he already believes.

Ochako Uraraka (Uravity) is another one of the main characters. Her quirk gives her the ability to turn off gravity for any object she touches after pressing her fingertips together. This quirk, like many of the others in the series, doesn’t seem to be something that would be useful for a superhero, but the real superpowers are how these heroes are able to figure out unique ways to use their quirks.

Since Naruto is the shōnen I’m most familiar with, let’s compare these characters to those. If Midoriya, Bakugō, and Ochako are like Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, then this next character is the Neji of the series.

Shōto Todoroki has two different quirks in either side of his body. On his right he has an ice quirk and on his left he has a fire quirk. However, you won’t see him using his fire side very often and when he does, it’s with great regret. While I would still consider him to be a supporting character, I’ve decided to include him here because he rose in prominence during the second season.

Finally, I feel that I have to include All Might in this characters section because he’s the main professional hero of the show. Like Midoriya, he too was once quirkless and had his quirk “One for All” passed down to him. He is considered the most powerful of the heroes, however, due to an injury he sustained in battle, he can only use his quirk for a limited amount of time each day.

Ochako Uraraka (Uravity) vs. Katsuki Bakugou

Conclusion

While I wasn’t much of a fan during the first season, the second season of My Hero Academia really turned the series around for me. What’s even better is that the second season is about twice as long as the first so you get even more of the good parts.

However, I don’t fault the first season for feeling a bit slow. As a shōnen which seems like it’s going to last for a while, it needed take time to set up many of the characters and the basic plot for the show. The only thing I might have changed would be to start off with a flash forward to something exciting for all the viewers to look forward to which is something that both Naruto Shippūden and Boruto did well.

Overall My Hero Academia is a 7/10 for me. It’s a good shōnen, but it’s not a great shōnen. This can probably be attributed to the fact that it’s fairly new and I don’t have many opinions on most of the characters yet except Bakugō whom I hate. I think that given more time My Hero Academia will become even better as the characters and plot become more developed and complex.